


Unforeseeable Midnight Visits and Highly Unfortunate Timing

by JeromeClarke107



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: L.A., M/M, Marriage, Mention of scars from Troy's time with the pirates, Post-Canon, Tooth-rotting Jabed fluff, Trobed angst, she ships them both, so does Abed, the author is so sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:41:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25974592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JeromeClarke107/pseuds/JeromeClarke107
Summary: If Abed had known three years ago that Troy Barnes was going to show up at his L.A. apartment, soaked from the rain and smiling that smile that used to take Abed’s breath away, everything would probably be different.
Relationships: Abed Nadir/Jeff Winger, Past Abed Nadir/Troy Barnes, sort of - Relationship
Comments: 19
Kudos: 75





	Unforeseeable Midnight Visits and Highly Unfortunate Timing

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a prompt on the first Angst and Fluff Prompt List by hellsdemonictrinity on tumblr.  
> Prompt: I'm right where I belong.
> 
> I wish this was better, but writer's block has had me for almost a month, and at this point, I'm just glad I was able to write something :) 
> 
> Regardless, I hope you enjoy! My tumblr is JeromeClarke107 if anyone wants to DM!

If Abed had known three years ago that Troy Barnes was going to show up at his L.A. apartment, soaked from the rain and smiling that smile that used to take Abed’s breath away, everything would probably be different.

He doesn’t _look_ all that different, but there are some noticeable changes. The scars on his arms weren’t there before, and Abed remembers spending a solid month worried about a story he’d heard on the news about pirates exploring the area where Troy’s boat was docked. He’s beginning to think that Troy may have lied when he got back to him to tell him that everything was fine.

He invites Troy in as his friend looks him over, knowing full well that he’s changed a great deal, too. He’s got slightly more muscular since Jeff moved in; he liked to show off some of the things he’d learned in a personal training class he’d attended before he left Greendale. Once in a while, Abed humors him, and he’s started to see slight results over the last couple of years.

More than anything, he’s sure Troy notices what he’s wearing. He’s ditched his green pajamas that he’d worn during their pillow and blanket war in favor of a pair of Jeff’s soft boxers and one of his old Greendale t-shirts that hangs off of his body even though it fits Jeff snugly.  
“This place is...nice,” Troy says as he sits his stuff down at the door. Abed knows what he’s thinking, but he’s ok with it. It’s the perfect mixture of his taste and Jeff’s, classy with a dash of nerdiness that you only see if you know what to look for. The Inspector Spacetime posters that had hung loosely in his room at the Colorado apartment have been framed and hung on the wall with even space between them.

All of his friends comment on how nice they look when they come to the loft, and it makes Abed feel grown up. It also reminds him of how Jeff had helped him hang them, how he’d spent nearly five hours holding them up in various places around the apartment so Abed could decide which walls they looked best on. He’d been exhausted that night, had fallen asleep on Abed’s shoulder within the first twenty minutes of the first _Star Wars_ movie.

He hadn’t even complained once.

Troy sits down on their black leather couch and looks around. Abed tries not to analyze the look on his face, afraid it will be too unfamiliar, too unlike the friend he’d once known like the back of his hand.

“So you must have a roommate,” Troy starts, smiling brightly the way he used to when they’d gotten out of their bunk beds every morning, when Abed was the first thing he saw upon waking.

“Sort of…” Abed starts, looking down at his hand and wary of approaching the subject that’s certain to come up when Troy sees it.

Troy must notice the ring there because his eyes widen even more than they had when he’d learned about the fourteen million dollars.

“Oh.”

“Yeah,” the awkward silence between them lasts longer than one ever has, and Abed feels like he needs to explain himself even though Jeff would be adamantly telling him that he’s done nothing wrong.

“You left and...I thought I’d never see you again.”

Troy nods, and Abed wants to rephrase it because it’s partly the truth but not the whole one. He held out hope for three years after Troy left that their movie would have a happy ending, that they’d get their sunset kiss and their happily ever after. Even after hearing about the pirates and Troy’s potential kidnapping, he held out hope.

And then Jeff showed up at his door, needing a place to sleep until he could find a place of his own, and things had happened so naturally after that. Abed had convinced him to take the guest bedroom and he’d passed the California Bar Exam and his legal practice had taken off with the same speed Abed’s directing career had.

“I’m here now…” Troy whispers, his deep brown eyes meeting Abed’s with the kind of pleading he’d hoped he’d never have to see reside there. His heart swells and he loves Troy so much, has loved him always. He has a brief urge to kiss him like he’d dreamed of doing for so long after he left on the journey of a lifetime.

The ring on his finger suddenly feels very heavy, but he surprises himself with the realization that he doesn’t want to take it off.

“How long?” Troy doesn’t look angry, just disappointed, and somehow that’s a little worse than anger would’ve been.

“Three years. It was just a courthouse wedding. Britta was our witness.”

Troy nods,”Did you guys meet in L.A.? Is he a bigtime actor?” 

Abed’s heart drops at Troy’s attempt to sound happy for him. It’s sweet, but he’s known Troy long enough to know when sweet means sweet and when sweet means devastated and heartbroken.

“No. It’s Jeff.”

Troy’s eyes grow wide and it would’ve been comical if it wasn’t so fucking sad.

“He’s practicing in L.A. Came by to visit and decided to stay for a while…”

Troy nods, “And you fell in love with him. It’s ok, I’m not surprised.”

Abed cocks his head in confusion. He’d been surprised, and he’s sure Jeff had been, too.

“You two always had something. Not like a romantic something, but something.”

Maybe he’s right. Abed had loved Troy with everything he’d had, though. No one else had even been on his radar when he was still surrounded by Troy, being loved by him and being left by him all in the same place.

It’s why he had to leave Colorado. The memories of Troy that haunted him became too much, and Jeff had somehow managed to chase those ghosts away without even trying to.

And now Troy’s here, and they’re all back again.

“Troy, I’m-”

“It’s ok, Abed. I understand.”

Abed’s fairly certain that he doesn’t, but he isn’t sure what he was going to say, anyway.

If you’d stayed, it would’ve been you? Would it have been?

It’s easy to remember, now that Troy’s sitting on his living room couch with his pretty smile and his sweet eyes and his _everything_ , how much he’d loved him. But Abed’s never going to forget what those months without him were like, how unbelievably sad he’d been without Troy by his side. 

He’d fallen into a dark place that Jeff had lifted him out of when the Inspector Spacetime series finale had felt like losing Troy all over again, when he’d buried his face in Jeff’s neck and sobbed like he never had in front of anyone before. Jeff had invited him into his bed for the first time that night, had held Abed against his chest like he was something to lose, like he was something worth worrying about losing, and for the first time since Troy boarded that boat, he’d felt content and at peace and _loved_.

And when he’d pressed his lips against Jeff’s, it had felt like he was always supposed to be kissing Jeff, and he’d loved Troy so much, but he loves Jeff, too.

“I’m so sorry, Troy.”

He shakes his head and puts his hand on Abed’s knee, rubs his thumb over it gently and lovingly and so Troy-like it hurts.

He leans forward and presses a gentle, firm kiss to Abed’s lips. It’s more like a goodbye than anything, and Abed wishes that he’d given him that goodbye the first time.

Maybe things would be different then.

Maybe Troy wouldn’t be walking out the door, a wave and close-lipped smile following him with a promise to come back and visit soon. Maybe Abed wouldn’t be climbing the stairs in the loft, his mind racing with Troy and Jeff and an impossible and insurmountable love for both of them.

Maybe, somewhere in a different timeline, Abed’s climbing into bed beside Troy in their Colorado apartment instead of climbing in beside Jeff in L.A.

But now, with the city lights coming in through the window of the loft, Abed finds that curling up against Jeff’s chest feels right. Jeff’s eyes flutter open and they’re blue and his gentle, sleepy smile makes Abed want to kiss him until he can’t breathe.

Instead, Abed pecks him gently on the lips and leans into his hand when Jeff cups his cheek.

“What’s wrong?” Jeff whispers, his eyes already beginning to close again as he settles back down against his pillow.

“Troy showed up tonight. He’s home. From his journey, I mean.”

Jeff’s eyes widen and Abed recognizes the fear there, even though Jeff would die if he thought anyone knew him that well. Vulnerability isn’t his strong suit.

“You’re still here,” Jeff whispers in a tone that sounds like it’s trying to conceal surprise. Abed cuddles closer to him and leans his head against Jeff’s chest, listens to his steady heartbeat. 

“I’m right where I belong,” he whispers, pressing a kiss to Jeff’s skin and letting his body relax as it fits perfectly against him.

Jeff’s arms tightening around his back is the only sign he needs to know that Jeff heard him.

And that Jeff loves him, too.


End file.
